by P. S. Power
She still nearly kicked his butt, the fear making it nearly impossible for him to do anything at all. He'd thought that Itch had hit him hard that way... now he knew that to be wrong. The woman looked ragged, her clothes old and dirty, hair greasy and matted, and the supermarket they stood in had flat fluorescents which didn't help her looks at all. She swung a fire ax wildly, but her small size made it impossible for her to do it cleanly. When she overextended, he stepped in, fighting the fear, if just barely, shaking the whole time, and took it from her, then knocked her out with the handle end. He threw the fire ax away and told the people there to be careful as he moved back to the point he started near the stream, his pack having fallen on the ground. He'd been wearing it when he left, but it had come off and rolled away when he vanished.
This happened a few more times, all fights he managed all right, and once a group of kids that freaked and ran from whatever they were doing when he showed up. He liked the easy ones best. Show up and maybe yell a bit, they run, go home and rest. Nice.
The idea made him smile.
Brian ran sometimes during the day and did other exercises as he healed enough for them. When he felt better, he found himself missing Penny and his other friends. Karen – even though he associated her with pain from all the work outs – Bridget, Lauren, and Mark. He wondered if they even remembered him now? He'd been gone longer than he'd been there after all and most of the time he'd spent exercising and practicing, not socializing or making friends.
On the night before the last MRE would be consumed and with only three granola bars left, he sat in front of his little fire, having gotten it going with only one match this time, a fact he felt very proud of and smiled to himself. He'd lasted out here a lot longer than he'd figured he would. Brian had, well, not a full stomach, but enough inside to stop the worst of the hunger and plenty of water to drink. He didn't even feel cold, the black clothes the others had sent him kept him warm at night, as long as the blanket stayed draped over him.
The move to the convenience store came fast, the warning tingle barely even registering before he found himself under bright white lights, facing the two men from the bar again.
The asshole cowboys.
This time he didn't wait, tackling the guy with his beat up gun and hitting him twice, as hard as he could, turning the gun toward the man who held it. The thing went off and a red hole bloomed in the center of the man's face. Pushing the gun toward the man again, Brian got it to fire twice more, both hitting the man in the head, before the other man, the one that called himself the Jackal, knocked him away from the fallen man with a casual flick of his right hand.
“Rick!” The Jackal checked the man for life as Brian got to his feet, searching for a weapon. He saw the people behind him, cowering in fear, which he understood personally, having seen these guys work close up before. They should be afraid. He looked at them, seven or so people, some older, two looked like kids. They were all alive, but had clearly been hurt already. All of them. He nodded.
Afraid of him or not, this guy would kill them and eat the bodies, parts of them, some of them alive, if he could. He was fast, stronger than Brian could ever be... and tough. No one even knew if he could be hurt at all, like Marcia. Only this guy wouldn't pull his punches. Not now. Brian had killed his friend. The small man in front of him wouldn't let him go now. He wouldn't let any of them go. Brian would have to make him.
If he could.
Before he'd even stood up from checking his buddy, Brian ran at him and jumped quietly, knowing the guys reflexes would easily let him bat Brian from the air if he noticed it happening. He hit hard, and they tangled on the floor clumsily. Holding him close to neutralized his speed, Brian screamed a single word.
“Run!”
Now he just had to hold on for as long as he could. The man bucked hard, so violently Brian nearly flew off totally. Brian held on to an arm and a shoulder but the smaller man managed to knee him in the groin perfectly as he came back down, the guy laughed as he gasped in pain.
“Hurts, don't it?” He called out as he shifted, trying to push Brian away.
Brian felt, more than saw, the people leave, running away. Good. He knew he couldn't get away now himself, but if they did, it would be enough, right? He felt bad about the person he took the place of, but didn't know what else to do. He'd fight to the end, letting the people get what distance they could and then pray.
He had nothing else to give them.
They fought for a long time, it felt like to Brian, his left arm twisted out of the shoulder socket at one point, making him scream in pain while the Jackal chortled.
Finally he saw her, as the tears of pain cleared for half a second. A girl, young, about twelve or so, wearing a pink t-shirt that had a blue star on the front, huddled, crying in front of the stores cold case. She looked into his eyes, terrified.
“Sandy? I don't know what's going on...” She cried when he told her to run, that he couldn't hold long.
Underneath him the laughing psycho looked over at her.
“Just cause you fucked with me, when I'm done killing you I'm going to rape her ass while I eat her arms. Take that with you to the grave, fucker!” Then, jaw distending, growing larger, the man bit down on Brian's left shoulder. Flesh tore, and sharp teeth grated against bone, the Jackal shook his head, making the wound worse. Brian gasped out to the girl again.
“Run!”
She didn't move, just covered her ears with her hands.
Fuck.
What could he do?
Oh well, Brian thought, suddenly calm. It was... strange. Something beyond fear, or anything he'd ever experienced. He was dead, but then, he'd known that for a long time, hadn't he? There were no rules, this was a fight to the death now, and he had to win. No matter what. Even if it wasn't possible.
He reached over with his own mouth, small and human, teeth dull and jaw weak, and bit down on the man's neck, not really thinking anything would happen at all, like with Beatdown. The Jackal howled, letting go with his own mouth and trying to struggle away. Brian bit as hard as he could, chewing, twisting, trying to tear the flesh open. He almost passed out when Jackal started biting him again, but he hung on, blood finally starting to pour from the side of the man's neck.
He kept chewing, biting, digging in. He reached up with his right hand and pushed at the monsters eye, not that it changed anything. He withstood that just fine, not even seeming to notice it. Blood mingled, pouring all over them. Finally, after what seemed an eternity, the smaller man stopped moving. Brian didn't think he could move, much less stand, but surprised himself. Forcing the Jackal's mouth open he worked his shoulder free and got up. He started blacking out, but got to the fire extinguisher on the wall and back to the man bleeding on the floor before he could stand up or hurt the girl that still huddled on the floor, covering her ears, eyes closed tightly.
Good.
She didn't need to see this.
Brian would have gotten the gun, but he didn't see it anywhere. His vision had dimmed too much.
He used the bright red extinguisher to hit the Jackal in the head, over and over again, a weak and awkward movement, using one hand holding it by the metal handle at the top, swinging it like a club, his left arm useless.
“That's for Barbara Dorn, you fucking monster.” Brian rasped. He didn't stop till he passed out, praying it was enough. He hoped the little girl would run now, before the Jackal could recover. Brian gasped the word out again to her, but doubted she was paying any more attention now.
The woods smelled nice. He knew he'd gone back then. The scent filled his world, even though he couldn't see any more. Good. This was a better place to die than many. Nicer than under the stark florescent lights of the shop. He hoped that someone would be able to stop the Jackal now. That should have at least slowed him down for a bit. The ground beneath him turned red with his own blood. Pretty, he thought, lying on his injured side, then let his eyes close.
His last thought was that
he hoped the little girl ran. Sandy too, whoever she was.
When his eyes opened, Brian saw a hospital, white lights and people moving around him fast, talking to him, giving him blood and telling him he'd be all right. He didn't believe them, but it was nice of them to say, trying to comfort him like that. They gave him something then and he slept.
Later, a lot later, he woke up with Penny sitting by his bed. He blinked. Brian thought it might be her, she looked nearly solid, still see through, but just barely.
“Penny? I didn't know you were a blonde. I figured brunette or maybe a red head, you know, Penny, copper-colored hair...” She started and yelled then laughed and hit the call button.
“Brian! I thought you were dead. You almost died. Mark went and got you and carried you back from the woods... It took him months, but he got you back here instantly... You were nearly three hundred miles away. Don't do that again, please? Everyone missed you, then you almost got lost...” She started crying. He hurt, his left shoulder, surprisingly still attached, ached, even through the pain medication.
Reaching over he took her hand with his right and whispered to her.
“I can't fight right now, I don't think. If the cops come for me, it's up to you.” He smiled. Dead serious though.
When the doctor came in, the same one as before, Burrows, she had several people on her heels, The Director, Lancaster, Tull and... a police officer. Brian got up suddenly, gasping in pain, pulled the I.V. loose carefully and stood on the floor, turning his body so that he led with his right side. Nothing had been left for him to fight with of course.
Damn. These people knew him too well already.
Several people started talking at once, but he couldn't understand them. He had to take out the threat fast this time, he knew. This officer looked older and didn't have a weapon at all, in a dress uniform without even an empty holster, but still, a cop, coming for him when he was hurt again. He moved toward the man, his right arm up.
Lancaster got it first, “Fuck! Get him out of here! Damn fool idea, Director, letting an officer come in first thing.”
The policeman put his hands up and walked backwards.
“Ah, just here to thank you on behalf of the national brotherhood of police. Thanks. I'll go now.” He sounded scared, as if the menacing, half-crippled guy in front of him could have done more than poke at him a little.
They got him to calm down. Mainly because Lancaster pulled a small gun from a holster on the back of his waist band, and handed it to Brian, telling him again that the police officer had just wanted to thank him this time and that they'd get him to leave now. The Director looked at Lancaster like he'd lost his mind, but the younger man kept the weapon and got back into bed. Doctor Burrows put the I.V. back in and asked him to avoid doing that again if he could help it.
“Seriously, Yi, we do all this hard work and you want to undo it within a few hours? Work with us here a little.” The doctor didn't bother trying to sound mad about it, smiling at him instead. She had a point, Brian decided, as even more pain lanced through his shoulder as he readjusted himself in the bed.
Wiping at his forehead, gray hair neatly combed, the Director looked at Tull questioningly.
“Is the boy all right? Mentally I mean?”
Doctor Tull held her face with both hands for a moment and then glared at the older man.
“Just in case this ever comes up, never ask that question in front of a potentially unbalanced person again. If you didn't need me so badly here, I'd resign right now for doing it this time. Luckily, Brian isn't unbalanced at all. He's been given rather powerful training and reinforcement, which is why he reacted the way he did here. It's in the file, if you bothered to read it? Every time he saves someone and gets hurt, the police come and do even worse things to him. Worse, in this case, the most traumatic event in his life followed hard on the heels of his first encounter with the Jackal and his associate, so closely it's basically one event. Now it seemed like it would happen again. What would you expect him to do? What would any of us have done in the same situation?”
Nodding the man stepped forward and apologized to Brian smoothly, something he suspected the guy really didn't care about at all. Better than a beating or being yelled at, so he let it go for now. No need to make things harder than they had to be.
“Now, Brian... As you might imagine, people are quite... enthused that you managed to, err, subdue the Jackal and his cohort so effectively. If you feel up to it, would you be willing to speak to the press? It's all right to say no, but many have wondered if you... survived the confrontation. The video footage doesn't look very pretty I'm afraid...” The Director smiled, not a politician's phony grin, but still one that looked practiced, rather than happy.
Lancaster snorted. “Given everything, do you really want Brian talking to the press? He can cause a national issue just by telling the truth about his story. Even without embellishing at all.” He held up a hand toward Brian. “Not that you shouldn't, but the Infected issue is so big right now – calls for taking away rights and bullshit like that – Brian, people aren't looking at this as an Infected guy taking down a killer, or even some good Infected guy taking on a bad one, they see it as an evil Infected killer being taken down by a government agent. If you go and tell them that the police, the only group they think is really looking out for them, has been off torturing innocent people, well, I don't think people will respond by coming down on our side. They view the cops as their main protection and for the most part they're right. Dickheads that a lot of them are, they generally do look out for people, at least the rich ones and the un-Infected. We need to be careful and not make people hate all of us here by threatening their security blanket.”
Tilting his head Brian thought for a bit, then shrugged. That, of course was a huge mistake, shrugging. Hiding the pain as best he could he waited for it to pass before thinking about the whole issue. He didn't have to like the police to see that they were both bad and at the same time generally useful for most people. The two things weren't mutually exclusive. They could be evil to him and help little old women cross the street too, right? They shouldn't get away with the bad things they did, but that didn't mean they never did anything good. He could see that. Really.
Of course the Mafia committed crimes and helped people in their own neighborhoods sometimes, but no one mistook them for the good guys. He still didn't want the police to get him.
“Right, well, I can keep my mouth shut for now, since this isn't really a police issue. All they did here was fail. Or... did they manage to pick the Jackal up? I haven't heard yet.” He looked around the room, Penny, sucked her lips into her mouth.
No one else spoke, so she did, finally, sounding a bit strange.
More than just a little actually, her voice was soft and a little weak sounding for some reason.
“Brian... you... killed him. You got both of them actually. The first one with his own gun, then you fought with the Jackal and... You killed him with your teeth. They figure he was dead before you started beating him with the fire extinguisher. It's on all the news channels. They even have a warning with it about extreme content. Most of them even bleep out the part where you called him a fucking monster.” She reached out and touched his arm.
“Oh. Well. Good then.” Everyone else looked at him funny, like he'd suddenly started talking to himself. He pointed to Penny and let them know that she'd told him.
The agent grimaced and then let it turn to a little smile. “Yeah, a bit harsh, but you did what you had to and... you know how many people the Jackal and his buddy killed in there?”
“No...” Brian swallowed, trying to get ready to find out how much he'd failed, how many paid for him not being good enough. Not getting there soon enough...
“None. Not one person. And he'll never hurt anyone else ever again. Those two killed over two hundred people across the country in the last few months. Two hundred and fourteen. Moving from place to place too fast for us to even track, much l
ess stop, and no one else before today so much as touched him.” He put out his hand again, his smile growing a bit. “Except some kid who got one lucky punch in, once.”
The man shook his head, trying to look serious then.
“Don't get me wrong, you still suck at fighting. You beat a bad ass, but that doesn't mean you're all that tough. Not yet. I can show you fifty ways you could have taken him faster and with less damage to yourself or I'll buy you dinner for a month.” He put out his hand to shake on it and Brian did, feeling awkward. He'd left here for a reason and everyone acted like this meant he'd come back permanently.
“Um, isn't all the food here free?” Brian asked the tall man.
Lancaster grinned and nodded.
“Yes it is. Good point, so if I can't show you sixty ways?”
They both managed a chuckle over it at least. Tull smiled and the others looked like they'd lost their minds. Was Brian back? He didn't know.
Not that he could go anywhere at the moment, but he'd done as well on his own as not. He'd been lonely sometimes, but no one tried to kill him, well, except when he went other places, but that would have happened no matter where he'd been, right?
The Director acted like Brian had agreed to be his lap dog, and told him that a selected crew of reporters would be in the meeting room in an hour and a half. All he had to do would be answer some questions and try to smile. Brian wondered if he could fake a smile yet. He also wondered if he'd have to wear a little collar and a leash. If so, he wanted a little silver name tag in the shape of a bone. It was a style thing.
After the Director left, Doctor Tull asked if he wanted or needed anything.
“Um, I don't know if they'll come, but could you ask my friends if they'd visit? I understand if no one wants too, but you know, if they get a chance...”
She smiled and let her eyes grow happy. Maybe he was supposed to ask for money or drugs? More drugs would be good before he went to talk to those people, he mused, smiling a bit. He put his hand out to Penny, on his right, not expecting her to take it really. She did though, and smiled at him, still ghostly and pale, but visible enough that he had to wonder if seeing her wasn't related to his ability after all. He knew she didn't show up on cameras and stuff, so it had to be something more than just noticing her like he'd been thinking. It made sense for hearing her, because electronics could too, but the visual stuff was odd.
